Illegally speaking of course.
A VIN is a social security number of a vehicle. It is born and dies with it. A VIN cannot be resurrected on a different car.

I just assumed all the kit cars running around like the Shelby Cobras were doing this. A member on here informed me they did this with using donor cars of that year and the states allowed them to title them by the year of the donor car because of the parts.

I just assumed all the kit cars running around like the Shelby Cobras were doing this. A member on here informed me they did this with using donor cars of that year and the states allowed them to title them by the year of the donor car because of the parts.

I stand educated on this - thanks guys.

I'm not experienced in restoration, but that almost seems scammy. Taking the vin off of one car and putting it on another just seems wrong to me.

Removing a VIN and placing it in another vehicle is fraudulent. There was much discussion on exactly how much of the car 'donating the VIN' must be used before this is not fraud back in the heyday of musclecar restoration in the '80s, but suffice to say taking a VIN from a wrecked car and putting it in a better car is an easy way for a 1970 L-head six cylinder Chevelle mom and pop grocery getter to be magically transformed into an ultra-desirable 1970 LS6 equipped Chevelle SS. Hence the fraud. The rule of thumb is: you don't remove a VIN and rivet it into another vehicle. Now maybe you cut out the entire cowl from the driver's seat forward and weld that into the 'new' chassis and reach a gray area but that's not what we're talking about

The kit-car Cobra uses the VIN of the car that donated the chassis (for example a Fox body Mustang), or else must have a new VIN as it's a new vehicle. There are more 427 Cobra S/Cs now than Carrol Shelby ever made

Removing a VIN and placing it in another vehicle is fraudulent. There was much discussion on exactly how much of the car 'donating the VIN' must be used before this is not fraud back in the heyday of musclecar restoration in the '80s, but suffice to say taking a VIN from a wrecked car and putting it in a better car is an easy way for a 1970 L-head six cylinder Chevelle mom and pop grocery getter to be magically transformed into an ultra-desirable 1970 LS6 equipped Chevelle SS. Hence the fraud. The rule of thumb is: you don't remove a VIN and rivet it into another vehicle. Now maybe you cut out the entire cowl from the driver's seat forward and weld that into the 'new' chassis and reach a gray area but that's not what we're talking about

The kit-car Cobra uses the VIN of the car that donated the chassis (for example a Fox body Mustang), or else must have a new VIN as it's a new vehicle. There are more 427 Cobra S/Cs now than Carrol Shelby ever made

Almost exactly how it was explained to me as well. Did not know how they did it but another member on here told me almost the same thing you did. Learn new stuff everyday.